Sterilization system



United States Patent [72] Inventor Norbert J. Stevens San Marino, Calif. [21] App1.No. 756,634 [22] Filed Aug. 30,1968 [45] Patented Dec. 15, 1970 [73] Assignee BSP Corporation San Francisco, Calif. a corporation of California 54] STERILIZATION SYSTEM 3 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 99/251, 99/216: 165/86: 87 [51] Int. Cl B65b 55/14, B65b 55/18 [50] Fieldol Search 99/216,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 337,560 3/1886 Cook 165/87 2,020,309 11/1935 Grindrod... 99/216 2,401,077 5/1946 Johnston 99/216X 2,492,635 12/1949 Hawk 99/216 2,870,028 l/1959 Anderson et a1 99/216 Primary Examiner-Tim R. Miles Attorney-Flehr, Hohbach, Test, Albritton and Herbert ABSTRACT: Protein matter is sterilized with respect to heat sensitive serotype bacteria, principally such as salmonella and coliforms, by passing the protein matter through a sealed unit including a hydration tower and a sterilizer operating at a slight positive pressure. The material is subjected to sterilizing temperatures and then passed into a cooling system whereby moisture is vented to the atmosphere.

//l i l 31 Q 01: O 5 :1 If 1 INVENTOR.

Norbert J. Stevens :1 WW f M Attorneys PATENTEU DEB] 519m SHEET 2 BF 2 INVENTOR, Norbert J. Stevens fiforney Fig. 4

STERILIZATION SYSTEM BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the past it has been recognized that protein material such as meat, bone, or fish meal are easily contaminated with serotype bacteria including salmonella and coliforms. While it has been recognized that such bacteria is heat sensitive and susceptible to sterilization by administration of relatively high temperatures it has also been recognized that the administration of temperatures over about 260 F. destroys the food value of the product. While the bacteria may be destroyed at temperatures of about 209 F. it has been substantially impossible in the past to uniformly treat the product to be sterilized at the temperature of 209 F. Because of the temperature gradient from the interior of individual particles of the matter to the exterior thereof it has been required to overheat the exterior so as to assure that the sterilizing temperature of 209 F. is reached at all portions of the product. Consequently, it has been necessary when a protein product has been found contaminated with salmonella to destroy the entire product rather than attempt sterilization.

More recently it has been determined that the external temperature required to destroy salmonella or other micro-organisms is inversely proportional to the moisture content of the matter to be sterilized. Research in that direction, however, has produced relatively limited commercial success because of the requirement of relatively high moisture contents, in the neighborhood of percent by weight, in order to produce a sterilizing condition. In order for such a system to operate the moisture content of the feed material must first be determined and then the proper amount of moisture added in order to bring the content up to the necessary 10 percent. Such a requirement not only presents a substantial quality control problem on the feed material but also equipment is necessary to accurately add the necessary amount of moisture.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION AND OBJECTS The invention is incorporated in a system whereby the sterilization and hydration takes place in a closed system operating at a slight positive pressure. Hydration steam may be added to the sterilizer so that the moisture content may be raised slightly and thereby adjusted to permit sterilization without regard to the initial moisture content of the feed. After sterilization the product is cooled whereby the moisture added by the steam hydration is removed and the moisture content of the final sterilized product is approximately the same as that of the initial feed product.

It is a general object of the invention to provide an ap paratus for sterilizing protein materials incorporating a hydration tower and a through wall heater-sterilizer.

It is another object of this invention to provide apparatus for sterilizing protein matter with respect to heat sensitive serotype bacteria wherein sterilizing temperature can be applied uniformly throughout the material without exceeding protein destructive temperatures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a flow sheet showing a sterilization system in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a screw conveyor having a cutback flight and plug seal as used in accordance with the "Barth DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The system shown in FIG. 1 includes a U-trough screw conveyor 11 which is also partially shown in FIG. 2. The conveyor includes a cutback flight leaving a free space 13 on the shaft 15 between the screw 17 and the discharge 19. A weighted gate 21 is pivotally secured to the top of the conveyor ll and.

is held above the shaft 15 by means of a bar 23.

As the screw is rotated, material from a hopper, for instance, is positively fed axially toward the discharge opening 19 by the screw itself but the material located in the area of the clear shaft 13 is pushed toward the opening 19 only by means of the material behind it. The gate 21 serves to compress and compact that fed material about the shaft and below it whereby a material seal is provided just prior to the discharge 19 of the conveyor.

Material from the discharge 19 passes through the hydration tower 25, which is shown more fully in FIG. 3. As seen in FIG. 3 the discharge 19 from the conveyor is in the form of a circular opening in the top of the tower 25. Three tiers of festooned chains are located within the tower 25. Three first or upper tier 27 includes a series of chains 29 having their ends secured to the walls 31 and 33 and their centers secured to depending chains 35, the chains 35 in turn being suspended from a rod 37 which is centrally located with respect to the discharge 19. The second tier 39 is similar to the first except that the chains are festooned upon two rods 41, rather than the single rod 37 as in the first tier. Similarly the third tier 43 is festooned upon three rods 35. As material is dropped into the hydration tower it falls upon the first tier of chains and is spread outwardly to fallprimarily upon the apexes of the second tier'of chains. Similarly the fall is continued to the apexes of the third tier whereby the material is spread laterally to provide a well distributed flow at the base of the hydration tower spread across the entire width thereof. By use of the dependent chains 35 vibratory motion of the festooned chains is increased whereby relatively little of the material remains on the chains.

From the hydration tower the material is passed through the sterilizer proper which comprises a thermal disc processor, as more fully described in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,391,73 3. In general, the heater is a closed chamber having a series of hollow disc shaped members through which a heat transfer medium, such as steam, is passed and which are rotated on shafts extending transverse to the direction of material movement to mix and agitate the material as well as to move it along the processor itself. The discs themselves differ from the particular embodiments shown in said US. Pat. No. 3,391,733 in that they are provided with flights 47, as shown in FIG. 4, arranged on each side of the disc. The flights on one side of the disc are arranged 180 apart and the flights on the opposite side of the disc are located from those on the first side. It has been found that, when processing food product in meal form (90 percent 8 mesh), the length of the flights is critical to provide complete elimination of dead space for the material being processed. The critical length depends upon and may be stated in terms of the distance between the hub 49 to the outer periphery 51. It has been found that by maintaining the flights between 25 percent and 50 percent of the distance between the outer periphery of the disc and the outer periphery of the hub complete agitation and movement of the product is attained.

Another difference from the embodiment shown in said patent is the inclusion of an adjustable weir 56 which controls the residence time of material in the sterilizer. The weir is rotatably and manually adjusted to provide a material residence time in the sterilizer of from 25 seconds to 5 minutes.

In addition to the steam applied to the interior of the discs 53, steam is also applied to the atmosphere within the sterilizer 46 and the hydration tower 25. This may be applied through a series of spray jets 55 on the sterilizer and serves primarily to add moisture to the product being sterilized so as to assure adequate sterilization. The steam thus applied may be at about 7 p.s.i.g. but the pressure may be increased by 2.5 p.s.i.g. for each 10 degree drop in operating temperature. Thus a slight positive pressure is maintained in the sterilizer In the other operations of the apparatus the process was accomplished using as a sterilizer a larger thermal processor specifically, BSP Model No. 30l-i4Sl2ll, in the system as shown in FIG. 1. in this process using the larger sterilizer the and hydration tower. 5 product is fed through the conveyor 11 at the rate of 26000 From the sterilizer 46 the product passes through a screw pounds per hour and at a temperature of l F. and a natural seal, shown schematically at 57, to a covered but vented moisture content of from 3 percent to 8 percent. The product bucket elevator 59. A portion of the moisture added by the passes through the hydration tower to the ster1l1zer46 thereby hydration steam is vented to the atmosphere from the elevator absorbing moisture from the injectors 55. Hydration steam is vent 61. supplied through the injectors 55 at approximately 400 The elevator 59 carries the material to a flash cooler conpounds per hour at 7 p.s.i.g. thus increasing the product veyor 63 which is in the form of a cut and folded flight screw moisture by about l percent. Operating temperature is mainconveyor. This conveyor is also covered but vented to the attained at 340 F by passing steam at 22 pounds per minute mosphe e by means of the vent 65, A shown more particul5 and 340 F. IO the interior Of the discs 53. After passing larly in FIG. 5, the flight 67 of the conveyor 63 includ though the system the steam is returned to the heater as contially cutout portion which are folded outwardly from the densate at H screw itself such that a scooping action is attained upon rota- The output of the Stenhzer 46 a! a L of 9 pounds tion of the screw. Consequently the material passing through P and at a tempel'awl'e of 200 which Passed the conveyor 63 does not travel as a slug as in the normal through h elevator the p e through h elevaml' screw conveyors but rather is continually tumbled through the 59 PP y 75 Pounds of molstflle p hour 15 Vemed conveyor 1 the atmosphere by vapor flash resulting in 26325 pounds per o s From the flash cooler 63 the material is passed to a final hour ofthe product at 195 bemg fed to the flash conveyor 63. in the flash conveyor 63 approximately 325 pounds per hour cooler 65 whlch takes the form of the disc processor similar to h 46 b t which coon water is assed through ofv vapor is vented to atmosphere and the output of the flash t e The adistable 66 maintains conveyor 63 to the final cooler 65 is 26000 pounds per hour of the ms '3. t s t] he residence time the product at 170 F. to 180 F. 71 gallons per minute of coolthe level 0 t 6 pro 2 q fi y d t levatm: ing water at 60 F. are fed to rthe interior of the discs in the From the d e gf' passe 0 an e cooler 65 and exhausted at 80- F. The product output from 67 and fina y to a c 5 orge m .30 the cooler 65 is at 26000 pounds per hour and at 115 F., thus The methed of the "'Y was employmg h indicating an equilibrium in the moisture content of the paratus prev ously described for a series of tests wherein the Product A the moisture added by the hydration jets 55 is slel'lhzmg 46 "Y 3 Thermal hrocessohmanfjfacmred vented to the atmosphere either at the elevator vent 61 or the y BSP Corporanon of F" Francisco Cahfomla under cooler vent 65. Thus the cooling lowers the moisture content Model ml/5543 havmg a heahhghlea of squafe by 1 percent and the product is again at its original moisture feet. The unit was modified by adding flights 47. as shown in content f f 3 percent to 8 percent FIG. 4. Also the adjustable weir 56 was adjusted to provide a [claimresidence tim 0f25 Seconds- 1. A system for sterilizing protein ,matter with respect to The tabulation in Table 1 indicates not only the operating heat sensitive bacteria such as salmonella and coliforms, comconditions for the various tests but also the bacteria and spore prising congeylog means for carryings aid product, hydraLion former count of the product sterilized in each test. in tests means. sa1 y ration means ll'lC u ing a steam c am er, tests total vegetative bacteria which includes which includes m ans within said steam chamber for subdividing the protein salmonella, was accomplished along with the partial destrucmatter into a plurality of streams, sealed means interconnecttion of the spore formers. ing said conveyor means and said hydration means for TABLE I Product Feed Final Temp., Disc Feed spore Final Feed product Feed Feed F. in temp.. Steam bacteria former bacteria H20, H10,

'Imt No. rate temp. sterilizer F. injection count count count percent percent 1.... 170 100 v 240 324 Yes 1,000,000 11,000 0,000 5. 7 0.1 2.. 300 101 244 328 No. 40,000, 000 580,000 220,000 6.2 3. 0 3. 305 105 254 32s No. 16,000,000 400, 000 100. 000 5.1 3. 6 4. 240 104 234 324 Yes 30, 000, 000 250,000 31,000 0. 2 8. 5 s. 325 102 260 200 No. 00. 000.000 030, 000 100, 000 s. 2 4.1

Referring particularly to Table l, column 1 indicates the inpreventing the passage of air from hydration means to the condividual test number, column 2, the rate of feed in pounds per eyo means, a thel'fmal e P fil fP d d y a; hour at the conveyor 11. Column 3 indicates the temperature lion means, means P g 3 eat me lum l0 Sal of the feed and column 4 the temperature of the product in the thermal disc P t e discs f, means P- sterilizing unit. Column 5 indicates the temperature of the disc p y g Steam to the Interior of e thermal disc P e h 53, while column 6 indicates whether for not steam was increate a moist t p sh m. n m n for i h rgi g jected into the atmosphere of the sterilizer 46. Column 7 malenalflom 531d theme F p e states the total count of vegetative bacteria in the feed in The systemfis defined elem 1 together h l terms of colonies er ram. Column8indicates the total count eohheeted last named means flash 8 Said f f p g d t o spore ormers per gram in the feed. Column 9 refers to the Pro total count of vegetable bacteria after sterilization in colonies The y e as defined claim 1 h e f dlses of per gram, it being remembered that for all tests total destrucsaid thermal e P e include a Series of mlxlhg fllghts tion of vegetative bacteria including salmonella, was accome e" sald fhghis extending 'e the P p y of plished. Column 10 indicates the percent of moisture in the said mwa'd the hub thereof and f a length equal f feed and column 11 indicates the percent of moisture in the from 25 Percent F 50 perfem of the dlstance between fi l ili d product periphery of the disc and said hub. 

